Parking and phone records shed light on players, officials

The recent release of public records regarding the UNC football team has shed some light on both the off-field activity of some players and the actions of players and officials before, during and after an NCAA investigation into improper benefits.

The records were released after The Daily Tar Heel and seven other N.C. media outlets sued the University for data pertaining to the investigation.

The records revealed 395 parking tickets given to fewer than 12 players using 28 license plates from 2007 to 2010. One player received 93.

A UNC release stated 325 of the players’ tickets were paid, 30 are unpaid, 30 were warnings, nine were voided and one was successfully appealed.

Randy Young, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said it is possible for anyone to pay for a ticket given to someone else online.

Deunta Williams, a former safety, said players are sometimes forced to park illegally at Kenan Stadium.

Ohio State University’s football team is under investigation for players receiving discounts on cars.

Phone records released through the lawsuit show athletic director Dick Baddour and head coach Butch Davis had little contact through their University-issued phones with each other or other members of the football program.

When the NCAA first contacted UNC on June 21, 2010, Davis didn’t make any calls from his land line, and has only used his University cellphone twice in the 35-month period the records cover, even though it costs the athletics department about $80 a month.

Baddour made or received 11 calls or texts that day from his land line and University cellphone, none of them with UNC numbers.

The next day, he contacted Mike Hamilton, who was then the athletic director at the University of Tennessee. Hamilton recently resigned during an NCAA investigation into football and men’s basketball violations.

And when the NCAA began interviewing members of the football program on July 12, 2010, Baddour made seven calls or texts, including one to a landscaper, before calling Amy Herman, associate athletic director for compliance, at just after 6 p.m., and then again at 9:12 p.m., for a total of three minutes.

Baddour followed that with a 38-minute call to the UNC football office at 9:17.

Davis’ only recorded calls that day were to a prepaid New York number and a golf course in Southern Pines.

Baddour’s and Davis’ infrequent use of University phones stands in stark contrast to former assistant coach John Blake, who made dozens of calls and texts a day.

Blake contacted a number identified by the (Raleigh) News & Observer as belonging to Marvin Austin 117 times between Jan. 1 and July 11, 2010. When NCAA interviews began the next day, Austin called him and they talked for 31 minutes. Records show contact twice more on July 15, but never after that.

Blake, UNC’s top recruiter for several years, resigned one game into the 2010 season. Shortly afterward, Austin was dismissed when, among other allegations, it was revealed he trained in California before the 2009 season and received money from former teammate Kentwan Balmer and his agency, Pro Tect Management, also the agency of late NFL agent Gary Wichard, who was a close friend of Blake’s.

In allegations released Tuesday, the NCAA said Blake failed to report $31,000 of income from Pro Tect Management from 2007 to 2009.

The records further show Blake was in Westlake Village, Calif., the site of Pro Tect Management, about two weeks before Austin’s trip.

Knowledge by Blake of the trip or benefits without reporting them would constitute a violation of NCAA rules.